Adding 6th grade = $1 million loan

What will it take to squeeze 300 sixth-graders into St. Louis Park Junior High School next year?

Up to $1 million, which school leaders will borrow to pay for renovations to add sixth grade to the junior high school of seventh- and eighth-graders.

Construction at the school will start this summer and finish in September, just in time to welcome the new grade.

Earlier this year, the school board voted to reorganize its schools for the upcoming school year. As part of the reorganization, the junior high is adding sixth grade and school officials say they need to remodel to accommodate the new students.

"This isn't an addition," said Sara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Park Public Schools. "It's like getting another kid in your house and then you have to put in bunk beds to make it fit."

Last week the board chose to use a federal funding mechanism known as qualified zone academy bonds to finance the project. The federal bonds allow school districts to borrow money at a zero-to-low interest rate. St. Louis Park school officials say they expect to save $223,000 in interest over 15 years.

"It worked for us and we were able to qualify," said Sandy Salin, director of business services for St. Louis Park Public Schools.

Renovations include adding 12 classrooms by converting several large home economics and industrial arts classrooms into smaller computer labs and classrooms for the sixth-graders.

The addition of another grade level will bring the total number of students at the junior high to about 900 students.

Thompson said the classrooms to be renovated are each about the size of one and a half regular classrooms.

Minnesota was allocated $16.7 million for QZAB funds in 2010, and St. Louis Park applied to the Minnesota Department of Education for the bonds.

Thompson said the junior high renovation project was a good candidate for QZAB because its price is under $1 million.